My Sky Color

A forty something Dad, Husband, Engineer guy living in Western Oregon. Reflections on all things in life. A few technical things and whatever else comes along.

Sunday, February 28, 2010



South of the Border


I came back on Friday from a week in Mexico City. It was for work. When asked how was my trip I'm not sure what to say. A city of 22 million people is a little hard to encompass in a short answer. In an airplane the city goes on for a long time. The traffic is insane. Stop lights are fairly rare and the rules are a bit confusing.

The food and sanitary conditions are actually pretty good. The people are nice and hard working of course. Everyone is just trying to make some money to survive. There are zillions of little businesses. When you park your car at a store there are guys that wipe it down while you are gone. At a cost of a dollar or two, that's 20 pesos to you and me.

Part of my work was at a restarting Ford plant. Ford refurbished this 20 acre facility, refit everything, built new assembly lines and are going to start building 36 cars an hour on March 26th. It is pretty amazing the amount of money... They purchased 46 forklifts from Yale so I went with some other guys from our company to get things going.

I learned lots and reconfirmed my aversion to cities and large quantities of people. I like the country.

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Thursday, February 18, 2010



Monster Jam 2010


For years I have known that the Monster Truck Jam is Valentines Day weekend in Portland. I have thought it would be fun to go. Well Little C loves to watch trucks, RC, kayaking, unicycles and Monster Trucks on YouTube. So this year we bought Monster jam tickets. We went Saturday afternoon at the Rose Garden. Once we got our ear plugs in and found our seats it brought a tear to my eye to see the look on junior's face. It really was a lot of fun. Between the truck runs they had Jeep barrel racing, quad wars and some other little kids entertainment.


If you ever think about going, it is loud! Ear plugs are not optional. Most of the trucks just have straight pipes off each cylinder and these are 1500 hp engines. I have to say seeing a 10-12000 lb truck go from zero to 20 feet in the air in about 15 feet is really something to behold.


I'll add pictures when I have a minute.

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Thursday, February 04, 2010

15 Minutes of Fame (Maybe 30 seconds)


I came across a request for applicants for a TV show to aire on the History Channel. Now I am not one for stumbling in the spot light thing but it sounded interesting. It is called, "Top Shot." It is to be a series of episodes that recreate historical shooting situations and the participants in the show compete against each other.


I thought that it sounded fun so I sent in a brief paragraph and a photo of me. The photo was a real quality item. I handed the camera to the youngest C and had him snap a photo. After sending it I thought that would be the end of that venture.

One day at work the phone rang and it was the casting person for the show and they wanted me to complete an application and send a video. I was surprised to say the least. So the application was pretty simple to complete but the video was another thing. I had to borrow a video camera for starters then find a place in our house that was light enough and finally, figure out what to say. So I got everyting completed and shipped off before the cutoff date of Jan. 18th.



I haven't heard a thing. The whole thing has me a little worried as the filming requires that I am available for 4-5 weeks straight. Last time I checked I don't have 4 weeks of vacation on tap. If I was selected I would miss a Southern Utah man trip with all the guys in my family. We'll see what happens.

I only told a few people that I was applying. They all ask me regularly if I am going into show biz and if I have heard anything... I'm not holding my breath. Plus I need to sleep at night.

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Monday, February 01, 2010



Borrowed from TheGunSource.